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Legacies of loss: The health outcomes of slaveholder compensation in the British Cape Colony

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Igor Martins, Lund University; Jeanne Cilliers, Lund University; Johan Fourie, Stellenbosch University

Version: View help for Version V2

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
Replication Package			12/26/2022 09:26:PM

Project Citation:

Martins, Igor, Cilliers, Jeanne, and Fourie, Johan. Legacies of loss: The health outcomes of slaveholder compensation in the British Cape Colony. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-12-27. https://doi.org/10.3886/E183526V2

Project Description

Summary: Can wealth shocks have intergenerational health consequences? We use the partial compensation slaveholders received after the 1834 slave emancipation in the British Cape Colony to measure the intergenerational effects of a wealth loss on longevity. We find that a greater loss of slave wealth shortened the lifespans of the generation of slaveholders that experienced the shock albeit these effects are usually small and mostly confined to older cohorts of slaveholders who likely exploited slaves both as labor and capital inputs. The lifespans of those of the second generation who survived infancy were unaffected by the shortfalls and no effects of the shortfall were found for the third generation.

Funding Sources: Handelsbanken’s research foundation (P15-0159); Riksbanken Jubileumsfond (M20-0041)

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Economic History; Slavery; Labor History; Emancipation; Intergenerational Transmission; South Africa; Cape Colony

Geographic Coverage: Cape Colony

Time Period(s): 1780 – 1880

Collection Date(s): 2016 – 2020 (Tax censuses); 2017 – 2022 (Slave compensation records); 2013 – 2016 (South African Families database)

Universe: Residents of the Cape Colony from 1780 up to 1880 consisting primarily of slaveholders and their offspring down to the third generation.

Data Type(s): administrative records data; census/enumeration data

Methodology

Sampling: The matching process among farmers from Stellenbosch was divided into two stages. In the first stage, we matched individuals between the Claims’ Records and the Opgaafrolle using last names and names. We named the resulting dataset CR-OGR. The second stage consisted of matching the CR-OGR to the South African Families Database (SAF). The procedure adopted to match the CR-OGR to the SAF is described below.

a) If the name and last name of the individual matched perfectly between the CR-OGR and the SAF and this observation is unique in both datasets, it is a direct match.
b) If the name and last name of the individual matched perfectly between the CR-OGR and the SAF but this observation is not unique in the SAF, check for the genealogical information provided in the CR;

b.1) If the genealogical information can be inferred in the CR and cross-checked successfully with the SAF, this is a direct match;
b.2) If the genealogical information cannot be inferred or cannot be cross-checked successfully, seek the farm’s name in the CR;

b.2.1) If the name of the farm (defined as ‘woonplek’ in the CR) can be inferred and cross-checked successfully, it is a semi-direct match;
b.2.2) If the name of the farm can be inferred in the CR but cannot be cross-checked successfully in the SAF, seek the farm’s location;

b.2.2.1) If the farm’s location in the CR matches with either the place of birth or place of death of the individual in the SAF, it is a weak match;
b.2.2.2) If the farm’s location in the CR does not match with either the place of birth or the place of death of the individual in the SAF, it is an impossible match. The observation will not be carried further in the process.
b.2.3) If the name of the farm cannot be inferred in the CR, it is an impossible match. The observation will not be carried further in the process.

c) If the individual’s name matched perfectly between the CR-OGR and the SAF, but this is not true for his/her last name, this is an impossible match;

c.1) Exceptions are made for last names that clearly refer to the same family but contain spelling differences that can be attributed to language differences between English and Afrikaans (e.g. Berg/Bergh, Bernhardi/Bernhardie, Liebentrouw/Liebertrau, Roux/Rous). These cases were treated as direct matches.

d) If the individual’s last name matched perfectly between the CR-OGR and the SAF, but this is not true for his/her name, this is an impossible match;

d.1) Exceptions are made for names that contain spelling differences that can be attributed to style (e.g. Jan/Johan/Johannes). If the observation is unique, it is treated as a semi-direct match. If this observation is not unique, then the procedure described in b) is followed.

e) If the name or last name of the individual cannot be found in the SAF, it is an impossible match. The observation will not be carried further in the process.

Data Source: The data for this study came from three sources that we linked manually to produce a unique dataset from which all our estimates derive: the valuation records matched to the compensation amounts, the South African Families Database (SAF) genealogical records, and the tax records (also known as opgaafrollen).

The slave valuation contains information on slaves who were emancipated in 1834 together with their names, sex, age, place of birth, owner, and value. Some basic genealogical information about the slaveholder is also available.

The SAF database contains records of all settler families in the Cape Colony between 1652 and 1910. This allowed us to append information about each slaveholder’s year of birth, year of death, number of siblings, rank among siblings, sex, and lifespan of parents. Each individual in this dataset has a unique identity that can be linked to the identity of his or her relatives.

The tax records, collected annually by the British colonial authorities, contain information about Stellenbosch residents’ livestock, agricultural output, related capital, and taxation.

Collection Mode(s): other

Unit(s) of Observation: Individual

Geographic Unit: Cape Colony

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Published Versions

V3 [2022-12-27]

V2 [2022-12-27]

V1 [2022-12-27]

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